revers proxy http -> https?

Question

We have HTTPS test server with a self-signed SSL certificate. Is there any reverse proxy that will enable us to visit the page in HTTP, so our program can send HTTP request and not an HTTPS request??

Answer 1

You can do it with apache.

First, you need to load the proxy, proxy_http and proxy_html modules.

Then you need a certificate and a key for the proxy (a self-signed certificate will do). Put these together into a .pem file (so that the file will contain both the key and the certificate). It is needed only to initiate an SSL connection to the test server.

Then, you need a proxy setting like this:

<VirtualHost 0.0.0.0:80>
    ServerName give_it_a_name

    SSLProxyEngine on
    SSLProxyCACertificateFile /the/path/to/your/pem/file.pem

    ProxyPass / https://your-test-server/
    ProxyPassReverse / https://your-test-server/

    ErrorLog /the/error.log
</VirtualHost>

Of course you don't need a VirtualHost for this, you can embed the ProxyPass* and the SSLProxy* directives to any other host definition.

Answer 2

If your test server has HTTP enabled you can simply proxy to that protocol (assuming apache and mod_rewrite):

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/foo(.*)$ http://testserver.example.org/$1 [P]

If there's nothing listening on the unencrypted HTTP port you can't just strip the SSL away.

Answer 3

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/foo(.*)$  https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R]